In our quest to spread awareness on research and investments in the stock market, we keep sharing some of our research works on this blog. The idea is not to give any recommendation or stock calls, but just to let you, our readers, have a look into our world of research.

In 2018, over eight lakh people died of cancer in India. Disturbing but not shocking. What’s shocking is that if you visit the Tata Memorial cancer hospital, you will find the longest queue in the lung cancer department. Numbers attest to this observation. According to figures published on Cancerindia.org.in, close to 40 % of all cancer deaths were accounted for by tobacco use (smoked and smokeless).

The reason I call this statistic shocking is that 90 % of lung cancer cases are preventable. The biggest impact solution in cancer research isn’t about finding a cure for the disease but discovering a method that can convince people to quit smoking.

Return on Equity (ROE) is often hailed as the most important metric in judging the efficiency of a business. It is indeed an important metric. Legendary investors around the world have repeatedly highlighted ROE and its importance in investment decisions. One of the world’s most famous investors, Warren Buffett, has time and again expounded on the importance of ROE.

But the matter of fact is that very few new investors have a thorough understanding of ROE and its composition. So, the purpose of this piece of writing is to provide clarity on the concept of ROE and to lay down a practical framework as to how one should use the same to gain insights into the working of a business or an industry.

Simply put, ROE is a measure of profitability that calculates how many rupees of profit a company generates with each rupee of shareholders’ equity.

In one of our previous posts, we had written about this project of dividing all the letters of Warren Buffett into six parts representing six decades of Buffett’s investment journey. We also wrote about our learnings from the letters of Warren Buffett in the first decade (1957-1966).

This post is on our learnings from his letters in the second decade (1967-1976). For our readers’ convenience, just like the last time, we’ve put together an illustrated version of the letters. Please click here to download it.

Here are the eight big learnings from the second decade of Warren Buffett’s investment journey.

The cement industry is one of the strategic and vital importance for every growing economy. The humble commodity of cement is used everywhere from construction or renovation of a standalone home to building giant skyscrapers and sea bridges which serve as testaments to human ingenuity and progress. Cement is the most widely used material in existence and is the 2nd most-consumed resource on Earth after water.

So we’ve created this report to simplify how cement industry work. This will definitely help the new investors wrap their head around the cement industry. We also cover the history of the cement industry in India and how the landscape has evolved over the years.

Banks remain an enigma for new and inexperienced investors who are often clueless as to how to go about assessing them for a potential investment in the stock market.

It’s fair to say that banking is one of the toughest industries to understand for new investors.

So we’ve created this report to simplify how banks work. This will definitely help the new investors wrap their head around banking industry. We also cover the history of banking in India and how the landscape has evolved over the years.

I would argue that an investor should have roughly equal doses of arrogance and humility to be able to perform well. The arrogance would allow him to stay apart from the crowd and believe in his own logic and objective reasoning, while humility would keep him grounded and not be seduced by hubris which would lower the quality of his investment decisions.